Networks such as the Internet have become ubiquitous and useful tools for individuals and businesses. Users frequently point their Internet browsers to World Wide Web (the “Web”) sites which they find particularly useful or interesting. For example, a financial analyst may frequent Web sites which provide current and timely market information. Some Internet browser software tools allow users to establish preferences to help users quickly point their browser to favorite Web sites. For example, Microsoft Corporation's Internet Explorer® browser allows a user to record one or more network addresses as “Favorites”. A financial analyst with a current favorite financial news Web site can designate the current favorite site as a “Favorite” in his browser. Unfortunately, however, such recording requires the user to take conscious and specific steps to designate a particular network address or Web site as a “Favorite”. Further, this approach to identifying preferred addresses provides little, if any ability for a user to evaluate network, sites visited. For example, a user may find some network sites more interesting than others, yet will have no way of recording this.
It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus that overcame the drawbacks of the prior art. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide some ability to evaluate historical network activity. Further, it would be desirable to provide an ability to evaluate historical network activity, and establish network preference information, with little or no input from the user.